Red Dead Redemption adds 'Casual' and 'Expert' difficulties

Was Grand Theft Auto IV mind-numbingly easy for you? Or controller-throwingly frustrating? Rockstar is attempting to scale the difficulty of its next open-world game, Red Dead Redemption, to accommodate players of all abilities. "We've implemented levels of difficulty into the game that employ different types of auto-aiming," a new Rockstar Games blog post explains. "Casual mode gives you a full auto-aim system (and faster regenerating health). Normal mode features snap-to-target with precise aiming using the right stick. Expert mode implements free aim with no lock-on at all."

According to the post, this is actually the first time Rockstar has implemented multiple difficulty settings in its open world games. It's certainly an interesting approach to take: changing the actual method of gameplay, versus simply scaling enemy and player health. Will it be successful, though? Even Rockstar seems uncertain: "We will be interested to see what people think having played with each option."